God is Working While You’re Waiting
2/2/25
Isaiah 64:4 “Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who acts on behalf of those who wait for him.”
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It is essential in our Christian life to learn how to wait on God.
When we understand the principles of waiting it decreases stress and frustration in our walk.
The flip side is, unless we learn to wait on Him we will often make foolish, impatient decisions that we very much regret later.
Think Abraham and Sarah—when Abraham grew impatient with God’s timing with Isaac, he sired Ishmael and brought down trouble on his own house:
Gal 4:29 “At that time the son born according to the flesh persecuted the son born by the power of the Spirit. It is the same now.”
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Think Saul who, tired of waiting on Samuel to come and offer the proper sacrifice, offered it himself and lost the kingdom.
Remember Esau who, unwilling to wait for God’s provision for his hunger, sold his birthright to Jacob for a bowl of stew.
And we can’t forget the man in Jesus’s parable who became impatient with the return of the master, saying “My Lord is delaying his coming” and backslid into a sinful lifestyle. (Luke 12:45)
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Generally when you and I pray—we may not know it—but we have a “time expectation” in our head of when we expect God to answer us.
And when God doesn’t do it by then, we act like someone at a bus stop where the bus is late.
We tap our feet, glance anxiously at our watches, and wonder why the bus—in this case, God—is late!
This is when we grow anxious,
doubts begin to creep in,
and we sometimes even give up on the request and walk away.
And we walk away just before the breakthrough comes!
We fail to remember that God’s timing flows from a God who is very different from us!
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In the book of Isaiah, God lets us know in no uncertain terms just how different from us He is!
Is 55:8-9 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. 9 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.”
You don’t THINK like me, and you don’t ACT like me.
Therefore, my timing will often go against the grain of your flesh!
More often than not YOUR timing won’t be MY timing!
—This is because God sees the entire bigger picture of your life from beginning to end.
He knows when you can handle something and when you can’t.
And we forget that God is working while we’re waiting!
As you wait, He is operating behind the scenes to bring together the people, the circumstances, and even your own maturity level UP before He acts on your behalf.
He knows exactly the right and perfect timing to bring a thing to pass—far beyond what we could ever know!
And this is one of the many reasons every child of God must learn to wait on God!
He has our very best in mind,
our well-being and safety in mind,
and knows to the precise second the best time to act on our behalf!
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Just out of curiosity I counted the number of times in the 75 psalms attributed to David and found 21 times where he encourages us to, “Wait on the Lord.”
In Ps 27:14 he says, “Wait on the Lord; be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart; wait, I say, on the Lord.”
25:5 “On you I wait all day long.”
25:20 “Keep my soul, and deliver me; for I wait for you.”
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But again, waiting on God is not like waiting at a bus stop.
Every time David uses the word “wait” the Hebrew meaning is, “Wait in faith on the Lord.”
Remember, FAITH is very different from FLESH.
Faith doesn’t depend on what you can or cannot see.
Faith is not moved by how much time goes by.
Faith doesn’t grow impatient or angry like the flesh.
Heb. 11:1 “Faith is the substance of things you’re hoping for and the evidence of what you don’t yet see.”
The word “SUBSTANCE” means guarantee or title deed.
It is the Lord’s guarantee to fulfill the faith He births within us.
And “EVIDENCE” is the internal conviction from God (the knowing in your knower) that He will act on your behalf.
This is how we wait in faith on God—standing on the title deed of the promises of Scripture, fully convinced with a conviction from Him that it will come to pass!
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Then waiting on God is also to:
II. Wait EXPECTANTLY
David wrote in Ps. 62:5 “My soul, wait silently for God alone, For my expectation is from Him.”
Expectation and hope are the same thing here.
It is used in the Old Testament to convey a confident anticipation of something good coming your way.
This hope is not just wishful thinking but a firm assurance based on the character and faithfulness of God.
My faith and hopefully are rooted in the flawless character of God—His loyalty, goodness, faithfulness, and dependability.
—He is not a man that he can lie. (Numbers 23:19)
—He watches over his word to perform it. (Jer. 1:12)
—Great is his faithfulness! (Lam. 3:23)
So the Bible kind of waiting is the kind that is pregnant with expectation that God will do what He said based on His unfailing character!
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And then thirdly, the Bible kind of waiting is to:
III. Wait PATIENTLY
Ps 40:1 “I waited patiently (and expectantly) for the Lord; and He inclined to me, and heard my cry.”
David then lets us in on just how bad the circumstances were that he was in:
Vs. 2 “He brought me up out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay…”
In the Hebrew language the phrase “a horrible pit” is used to describe a pit of noise, a cavern, deep and dark, filled with horrors.
And not only was it a dark pit, he felt like he was sinking in miry clay like quicksand.
We don’t know what he was going through, but David is conveying the idea of being desperately trapped in abysmally dark circumstances and only sinking further.
And yet, even in those tougher than tough circumstances, he patiently waited for God to act!
And God did!
“He brought me out…” He DELIVERED me
“He set my feet on a rock…” He STABILIZED me
“He put a new song in my mouth…” He JOYFULIZED me
So after patiently waiting, God came through for David!
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Waiting patiently, even when you’re in hard circumstances like David, is to trust God’s timing because you trust God’s character.
So in order to wait patiently we must yield to Him:
our calendar,
our own time limits,
and trust that His timing is best.
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The Bible kind of waiting on God is to:
WAIT IN FAITH
WAIT EXPECTANTLY
WAIT PATIENTLY
Today, are you waiting on the Lord?
Have you prayed hard about something and now you’re in the waiting stage?
Take heart! Wait in faith on the Lord!
He is true to His word and will bring it to pass!